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Adele Phillips
Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History P, Period 2
8 April 2016

Inquiry Question #2: The Early Stages of Persecution (1933 1938)

Perhaps the most dreadful event in recent history is the tragedy that befell the world
during the Holocaust. Throughout a twelve year period, the Nazis were able to wreak havoc and
torture innocent people purely because of their inferiority. The Nazi ideology was rooted in the
idea that the German race was superior to all, and this state of mind was behind all of the
atrocities that took place in Germany and surrounding areas. While the majority of the worst
travesties took place during the final years of the Holocaust, there was a significant build-up to
those events, which took place throughout the years from 1933 to 1938. During these years, the
Nazis began to show their true intentions to the world, and began their systematic persecution of
all races they believed were under them. Among these were male homosexuals, Romani peoples,
and Jews.
Although homosexuality had long been frowned upon in Germany and surrounding
countries, the level of dissent for this lifestyle was intensified during the Holocaust. Under the
Nazi regime, the homosexual population would receive persecution ranging from the termination
of homosexual organizations to being placed in concentration camps with other inferior
people. This was due to the fact that the Nazis believed that male homosexuals were weak,
effeminate men who could not fight for the German nation (Website 1). In fact, the Nazis
believed that homosexual men were less likely to produce children and therefore would not
contribute to the creation of a superior German race. The Nazis saw this as a racial danger, as
they felt that it was necessary to have a higher birthrate than non-Aryan races in order to gain
superiority. Henceforth, the persecution of Germanys homosexual population began. The first
attack towards the homosexual community was on May 6, 1933, [when] students led by
Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilung, SA) broke into the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin

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and confiscated its unique library (Website 1). After the confiscation, the majority of the
12,000 books and 35,000 photographs and pictures were destroyed along with any other
materials that pertained to homosexuality. In many ways, this act was the first in a series of steps
to completely eradicate the homosexual lifestyle in Germany. In the following years, the Nazis
began to close lesbian and gay bars and clubs, as well as driving the homosexual community
underground and cutting their support networks. Furthermore, in 1934, the Gestapo (secret
state police) instructed local police forces to keep lists of all men engaged in homosexual
activities and the Nazis used these pink lists to hunt down individual homosexuals
during police actions (Website 1). As the war and the Holocaust dragged on, Nazi persecution
of homosexuals only exacerbated. For example, the Nazis were able to gain approval from
ministry officials in the form of a legal revision to continue their extensive persecution.
Henceforth, the police were given power to arrest anyone participating or having participated in
anything that could be construed as homosexual. Eventually, from 1937 to 1939, the peak
years of Nazi persecution, the police increasingly raided homosexual meeting places, seized
address books, and created networks of informers and undercover agents to identify and
arrest suspected homosexuals (Website 1). Essentially, homosexuals were treated as inferior
and persecuted in the same manner as other lesser races.
Among the several groups of people who were persecuted by the Nazis were people of
Romani descent. Although the discrimination of the Roma had been happening all over Europe
long before World War Two, it began for the Nazis in Germany when in 1933, police in
Germany began more rigorous enforcement of pre-Nazi legislation against those who
followed a lifestyle labeled Gypsy (Website 3). In the eyes of the Nazis, the Romani people
were an undesirable race and therefore needed to be either exterminated or contained. Thus
began the Nazis systematic identification of anyone with Romani blood, which the Nazis

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believed to be alien. However, this proved a difficult task as the Roma had been in Europe for
hundreds of years, and had been classified as Christian for that time, so it was impossible to use
religious records to identify those of Romani descent. Instead, the Nazis turned to racial
hygiene and sought to determine who was Romani based on physical characteristics
(Website 3). This study was led by Doctor Robert Ritter, a child psychologist located at the
University of Tuebingen who believed that criminal behavior was genetically inherited. Ritter
conducted many studies, both medically and physically, and through use of threats, was able to
gain information on subjects ancestors in order to compile his list of all the Roma living in
Germany. To conclude his research, Ritter declared that Roma, having originated in India,
were once Aryan but had been corrupted by mingling with lesser peoples during their long
migration [and] recommended they be forcibly sterilized (Website 3). This was proof
enough for the Nazis, and henceforth, the Roma people joined the large group of people who
were being persecuted by the Nazis. In 1936, the police force was centralized under Heinrich
Himmler, and therefore, all policies against the Romani people were aligned. The Roma began to
face similar punishment to the Jews and were held under the Nuremberg Laws. In addition, many
Roma were required to be sterilized in order to halt the expansion of the race. Not long after the
centralization of the police, the police ordered the arrest and forcible relocation of all Roma
in Greater Berlin to Marzahn, and open field located near a cemetery and sewage dump in
eastern Berlin (Website 3). The camp was guarded by police officers, and prisoners were not
permitted to leave the camp. Furthermore, all over the country Roma were being forced into
areas that eventually became forced-labor camps. In fact, Marzahn and the Gypsy camps
(Zigeuenerlager) set up by the Nazis in other cities between 1935 and 1938 were a
preliminary stage on the road to genocide (Website 3). As a matter of fact, many of the

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inmates at these camps would eventually be sent to Nazi death camps such as Auschwitz. In
addition, the majority of German concentration contained people of Romani descent.
The Nazis had a particular hatred for the Jewish people of Germany, as they blamed them
for all of Germanys sufferings. While anti-Semitism had been at work in Europe long before the
Nazis, they were the first to attempt to systematically eliminate the entire race. Nazi policy
essentially functioned on two primary levels: legal measures to expel the Jews from society
and strip them of their rights and property while simultaneously engaging in campaigns of
incitement, abuse, terror, and violence of varying proportions (Website 2). Altogether, the
Germans desired for the Jews to leave Germany. The persecution of Jewish people started almost
immediately after Adolf Hitler gained control of Germany, when organized attacks on Jews
broke out across Germany (Website 2). In addition, two weeks later, the Dachau
concentration camp, situated near Munich opened (Website 2). Dachau eventually became a
prison camp for anyone who was considered to be an enemy to the Reich, and would later
become a model for the Nazi concentration system. Persecution of Jews continued outside of the
concentration camps, however, including a general boycott of Jews and the passing of laws that
only served the purposed of eliminating officials Jewish descent. These laws banished Jews
from the civil service, judicial system, public medicine, and the Germany army (Website
2). In essence, the Nazis sought to make Jewish people outcasts and destroy their culture. This
was furthered by the passing of the Nuremberg laws in 1935, which took citizenship from the
Jews, as well as other basic rights. In fact, Jews were stripped of many natural rights, as they
were banned from universities; Jewish actors were dismissed from theaters; Jewish
authors works were rejected by publishers; and Jewish journalists were hard-pressed to
find newspapers that would publish their writings (Website 2). Eventually, this build up of
Jewish persecution would lead to over 6 million casualties in the concentration camps.

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The Nazis were brutal, ruthless, and cruel during their reign over Germany. They
persecuted a plethora of people, and systematically targeted specific races and religions. Over a
period of five years (1933 1938), they were able to fortify their empire in order to cause
colossal damage during the closing years of the war. The build-up in the early years was essential
to the strength of the Nazi Empire, and the early stages were crucial in carrying out the final
solution. All in all, the early stages were stepping stones to one of the most horrendous
atrocities committed by mankind.